Entries tagged with: Quasi

After the breakup of Sleater-Kinney, Corin Tucker went solo, and Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss teamed up with Mary Timony (Autoclave, Helium) and Rebecca Cole (The Minders) to form Wild Flag. They gave us an excellent album (one of our favorites of 2011) and touredlikecrazy, but apparently this great run has proved to be a short one because the band are no more. Janet Weiss tells The Skinny (via Stereogum), "It was great but I think it just kinda ran its course. It's hard to have a band when you live five hours apart by plane." That's a bummer if Wild Flag is done for good, but if so, thanks for the great memories!

On the bright side, Mary has been busy with her new band Ex Hex (who have an album coming out on Merge), and Rebecca's also been playing keyboards in another Merge band, Telekinesis. Janet is forever busy, having released an album with Quasi and Drumgasm this year, and of course Carrie always has Portlandia. Oh yeah, and all three members of Sleater-Kinney reunited on stage with Pearl Jam last week, so here's to hoping that wasn't the last we'll be seeing of Corin, Carrie, and Janet together.

More pics from Day 1 HERE and HERE, pics from Day 2 pics HERE and HERE; and pics from Day 3 are HERE and HERE, Slayer included....

Closing Fun Fun Fun Fest, Slayer treated Austin to greatest hits and then some: "Raining Blood," "South of Heaven," "Dead Skin Mask," "Seasons in the Abyss," etc. They also dug out the aforementioned "Die by the Sword," a high point off their 1983 debut LP, Show No Mercy.

After fooling no one with a false ending of "South of Heaven," the third backdrop of the night unfurled at the back of the stage: a parody of the Heineken logo reading "Hanneman" and bearing his life dates. The top read "Angel of Death." Reign in Blood's terrifying opening track - and closing number on Auditorium Shores - now serves as an epitaph for Slayer's fallen co-founder. - [Austin Chronicle]

The eighth Fun Fun Fun Fest happened last weekend (11/8 - 11/10) at Austin's Auditorium Shores, hosting three days of music and fun (fun fun), with such acts as MIA, Deerhunter, Slayer, Television, Thee Oh Sees, Kurt Vile, Cut Copy. Johnny Marr, The Walkmen, Jurassic 5, Killer Mike and loads more. Many of them played again as part of the FFF Nites shows, including shows presented by BrooklynVegan and Invisible Oranges.

We were there in the thick of it and, as mentioned above, you can check out pics from Day 1 HERE and HERE, pics from Day 2 pics HERE and HERE; and pics from Day 3 are HERE and HERE. See you again in 2014 Austin.

Quasi, the duo of former Heatmiser member Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss (of Wild Flag, Single Dynamite, Drumgasm, and previously of Sleater-Kinney and Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks), are going on tour this year, and it's been announced that NYC anti-folk regular Jeffrey Lewis will be coming along as support. As discussed, that tour hits NYC on October 13 at Knitting Factory and October 14 at Mercury Lounge. Tickets for those shows are still available.

The second to last show ever at legendary Hoboken rock club Maxwell's happened last night (7/30), headlined by Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo and his current band, The Dust, whose lineup also includes Sonic Youth drummer/Maxwell's co-owner Steve Shelley. The night began with a set from Houndmouth (who had just played Newport Folk Festival), and direct support came from a "secret" band, Single Dynamite, which ended up including Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan and Quasi/Wild Flag's Janet Weiss. Pictures of last night's show (unfortunately none of Houndmouth) are in this post.

Maxwell's farewell block party just began (4 PM), and the final two shows tonight are an early one with The Individuals and Delicate Steve and a late one with The Bongos and "a" ( both sold out). And just a heads up that if you planned to use the Lincoln Tunnel to get to Maxwell's today, it was apparently closed due to a debris spill but just reopened, reports ABC News.

Lee Ranaldo & the Dust will be heading out on a full tour around the time of their new album that hits NYC on October 25 at The Bell House. Tickets for that show are still available.

This is it, the last day for iconic Hoboken rock club, Maxwell's which is shutting it's doors tonight (or the wee hours of Thursday) after 35 years. Last night's penultimate show at Maxwell's was headlined by Lee Ranaldo & The Dust. One of the openers was a mystery group, Single Dynamite, which turned out to include Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan and Quasi drummer Janet Weiss. Did anyone go last night? How was it?

Meanwhile, today's Maxwell's closing block party starts at 4 PM on the street outside the club. In addition to the already-announced line-up of The Bongos, The Individuals and "a", Delicate Steve has been added to the bill. NJ.com reports that thing may be broken up into two separate shows inside the club: Delicate Steve and The Individuals at 6 PM; and then The Bongos and "a" at 9 PM.

Quasi at Bowery Ballroom in 2010 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)Quasi, the duo of Janet Weiss (also of Wild Flag, and previously of Sleater-Kinney, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, and others) and Sam Coomes (former Heatmiser member) are returning this year with a new album, Mole City, the followup to 2010's American Gong. The new album will be out on October 1 via Kill Rock Stars in the US and via Domino in Europe. The tracklist and album trailer are below, and you can listen to one of the album's tracks, "You Can Stay But You Got to Go," at Pitchfork.

Quasi were recently announced for this year's Fun Fun Fun Fest, and while we're still waiting on a full tour announcement, more shows have been revealed. Two of those happen in NYC, including one on October 13 at Knitting Factory and another on October 14 at Mercury Lounge. Tickets for the Knit show are on sale now, and tickets for the Merc show go on sale Friady (7/26) at noon.

All currently known North American tour dates are listed, along with the tracklist and trailer, below...

The 2012 edition of MusicFestNWtakes place in September 5 - 9 at 18 venues in Portland, OR and will feature performances from over 150 bands, including Passion Pit, Hot Snakes, Girl Talk, Danny Brown, Beirut Silversun Pickups, Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh, many more.

In addition to those previously announced artists, MFNW has just added The Hives, Flying Lotus, Wild Nothing, DIIV, Quasi, Moon Duo, My Goodness, DZ Deathrays, and Strand Of Oaks to the already impressive line-up. Wristbands, available various levels and packages, and tickets to individual shows are on sale now. Check out the complete MFNW lineup below.

Dinosaur Jr haven't called it quits (again), but their members are fully engaged in their own separate projects in the coming months.

Lou Barlow's Sebadoh will hit the road in early February for a set of West Coast dates with Quasi followed by a set of East Coast dates in early April that aren't fully announced yet. Those dates include a pair in NYC at Bowery Ballroom on April 9th and 10th. Tickets for both shows (9th here, 10th here) are currently (as of noon) on AMEX presale, and go on regular sale at noon on 1/21.

Meanwhile, J Mascis is prepping his solo effortSeveral Shades of Why for release on Sub Pop. The LP, available for preorder now, which is "nearly all acoustic" is his first official solo effort and features ten tracks including "Not Enough" available for download above. J Mascis has a few dates of his own in the coming months too, and like the album they will be acoustic. First he's playing with Kurt Vile and then with The Black Heart Procession. Those include NYC shows with Kurt Vile on March 24th at Mercury Lounge and March 25th at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tickets for Mercury are currently on AMEX presale (as of noon) and go on regular sale at noon on Friday (1/21). Tickets for Music Hall if Williamsburg also go on sale Friday.

All currently known tour dates and an excellent/in-depth interview with J Mascis is below...

"Allow us to introduce you (against their wishes) to Forbidden Friends!

Forbidden Friends is part secret society, part torrid love affair. The kind of experience you cherish, yet would kill to keep secret. Well as of this moment the secret is OUT. You can wash your dirty sheets as many times as you want, but once the world knows all your steamy indiscretions there's no going back! Might as well post all your (formerly) deep, dark secrets as your next status update. Forbidden Friends may have hoped to keep their little club private, but it's too late now! The gossips have spoken and won. Let's tell EVERYBODY. Please help us!

Forbidden Friends is a new band from Hutch Harris, lead singer and mastermind of The Thermals, Portland's last great post-pop-punk-power trio. Initially conceived as a way for lovers to send hidden messages in plain view (isn't there an app for that?), Forbidden Friends is now a legitimate, public work of art. The band is at once old fashioned (acoustic instruments, mono mixes), forward thinking (reference-less, incredibly danceable), and timeless (classic lyrical themes of love and desire.)

Forbidden Friends will release their debut single, "Tiny Hands", on the Kill Rock Stars label March 15, 2011, on vinyl (7") and digital download. It is accompanied by the b-side "For You". Harris played the basic instruments (drums, guitar, bass, vocals), and was assisted in the studio by his fellow Thermals Kathy Foster and Westin Glass, as well as Michael Lerner of Telekinesis, on percussion. Both songs are truly upbeat and fun, and are the perfect introduction to this exciting new band." [Kill Rock Stars]

Forbidden Friends have no upcoming live dates, but (not counting the private party that Hutch has been tweeting about - see the top of this post) The Thermals do, as do Portlandia guest stars and Thermals' Kill Rock Stars label-mates Corin Tucker and the Decemberists.

Portlandia, starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, premieres on Friday, January 21, 2011 at 10:30 PM ET/PT on IFC, but you can watch it now in the video embedded below.

The Thermals, after the Portlandia party (1/19), have some dates scheduled on the west coast followed by a European tour with The Coathangers. Their list of dates, and Carrie's new band Wild Flag's updated set of dates, and pretty much every upcoming Kill Rock Stars-artist tour date currently listed by the label, is below...

"[Quasi] played for about an hour, running through most of the catchier songs from [new album] American Gong, including "Everything & Nothing At All," "Black Dogs and Bubbles," "Rockabilly Party," and "Laissez le Bon Temps Roulez"...that song's lyrics perhaps embody the philosophy of the mature musician in a musical form that favors the youthful. As individuals, the members of Quasi have played with everyone from the late, great Sleater-Kinney and Elliott Smith, to Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks and Bright Eyes. "You might say your race is run or you can rise up on the sound in the center of the sun ... I used to be mad, not crazy, just mad, not anymore, the receding taillights of a teenage dream." Not only is rock and roll not the fountain of youth, but it often eats its own young. Getting older is not for sissies, especially if you are a rock musician.

Performing only a few songs from other releases, including "All the Same, "Sword of God," and for an encore, that great Portland anthem "It's Raining," they ended the show with a perfect rendition of "Pictures of Lily," another song about the dangers of being misled by dreams. Quasi hasn't given up their dreams, they have brought to them a steel edge, pulsing beats and ferocious chords that do not go gently into that good night." [Metro Music Scene]

The above review is from Quasi's April 24th show in Washington DC, two nights after the band played (with some technical difficulty) at NYC's Bowery Ballroom on April 22nd.

Tonight Silent Barn hosts a few worthy out-there acts: Weasel Walter's Cellular Chaos, which at a gig earlier this year (on video below) featured Weasel on guitar, Talibam's Kevin Shea on drums and Ceci Moss on bass; Kayo Dot's Toby Driver and Mia Matsumiya as Tartar Lamb; Charlie Looker of Extra Life playing solo; and a band we know nothing about, 10, apparently on tour from S. Korea. - AF

We'll get a more complete press release in the morning (and confirm what is listed below is 100% correct), but in the meantime below is a picture of the 2010 Sasquatch poster (that someone Tweeted) and the lineup as read by Bradford Cox at tonight's Atlas Sound show in Seattle (and being listed all over the Internet)....

SXSW is almost exactly a month away and BrooklynVegan is going to be very active there, throwing more than a couple parties (official and unofficial) which we'll be telling you more about as it gets closer to the actual festival. Despite what music blogs lead you to believe (and the mass of people that will be there), not everybody goes to Austin in March. With that in mind, we're trying to bring a little SXSW to NYC this year by throwing a pre-Festival party on March 15 at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn with three (possibly four) bands on their way to Austin: Let's Wrestle, Casiokids, and The Wave Pictures. Stay tuned for one more band TBA. Tickets are only $8 and on sale now.

Let's Wrestle have just signed to Merge, who will be putting out their great debut album, In the Court of Wrestling Let's, on March 23. (The import made my Best of 2009 list.) You can download a track from it at the top of this post. Maybe you caught one of their CMJ shows back in October -- they're a lot of fun. In addition to our show and SXSW, Let's Wrestle will be on tour with Quasi in April -- including a 4/22 stop at Bowery Ballroom (tickets). All tour dates below...

Portland trio Quasi has a new album, American Gong, coming out on Kill Rock Stars February 23rd. "Repulsion," off that, is a catchy, twisted piece of indie-rock gold. The band knows something about "indie-rock" having connections to Sleater-Kinney (drummer Janet Weiss was a member), Steven Malkmus and the Jicks (which feature Weiss and bassist Joanna Bolme) and Elliot Smith (Sam Coomes played in Heatmiser and Quasi, when they were a duo, backed Smith on several tours).

Their previous tour dates have been updated with many more stops that run from March to the beginning of May. They play Bowery Ballroom on Thursday, April 22nd. Tickets go on AmEx presale Wednesday, January 13th at noon. General sale starts Friday, January 15th at noon.

Kill Rock Stars will be releasing the new album from Portland darlings Quasi on February 23, 2010. American Gong (cover art above) was recorded at Jackpot Studios by Kendra Lynn and was mixed by Steve Fisk (Unwound, Sleater-Kinney, Shoplifting) This is Quasi's first studio album since 2006's When The Going Gets Dark and first for Kill Rock Stars.

Quasi formed in Portland, Ore., in 1993, which means that it's been fearlessly rocking since long before your website launched or you booted up an iPod. For years -- 16 to be exact -- it was a duo consisting of Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss. In 2006, Joanna Bolme (of Stephen Malkmus + The Jicks) joined the band on bass.

...," the Sasquatch! Festival returns for its ninth year May 29-31(Memorial Day Weekend), 2010 at The Gorge in Quincy, WA. For the first time, a special discounted 3-day festival pass will be available in time for the holiday gift season on Saturday, November 7 at 10:00 A.M. (PST) via sasquatchfestival.com. There are a limited number of discount passes, which will be available through December 31, 2009. Recently reunited indie rock legends Pavement will be performing. The festival's complete lineup will be announced February 16.

Other rumored U.S. appearances are Coachella and the Pitchfork Festival. Meanwhile Pavement member Spiral Stairsjust released a new album. The new Spiral Stairs video, and all Pavement dates, and who Pavement has picked to play their sold out ATP fest so far, below...

The above drawing is a segment of the songsheet Oneida passed out at Sunday night's show at Maxwell's in Hoboken (12/21). It was the first of eight Yo La Tengo Hanukkah parties at the NJ venue this year, and, as promised, the Brooklyn band (Oneida) opened the night. As also promised, comedian Paul F. Tompkins opened with a set of comedy. AND, I'm feeling really good right now because two (sort of) of my guest guesses also came true last night. Both Britt Daniel and Janet Weiss (I guessed Britt and "Quasi") joined Yo La Tengo for some songs. To quote an email I got from Josh,

Oneida opened.
Then Paul F Tompkins.
Then YLT with Janet Weiss
For the encore - Paul F Tomkins joined the band and sang a Hannukah version of [Johnny Cash's] "Ring of Fire"
Then Britt Daniel joined and sang a few songs including "Mother and Child Reunion" [by Paul Simon]

Anonymous adds that there were covers of P.I.L., Amy Winehouse and Burt Bacharach as well.

This time of year is usually pretty slow, show-wise, but this seems to be an especially-packed week for shows. Here's some of the stuff I'm considering attending while I procrastinate on holiday gift shopping and doing all my year-end lists over on my own blog.

Speaking of, while I haven't posted my Best Albums of '08 yet, I will tell you Crystal Stilts' Alight of Night did make the Top Ten. They're playing tonight (12/17) at Le Poisson Rouge and even though I've seen them more times this year than I'd like to admit (and will probably see them again later this week), I will probably be in attendance. They're opening for Bay Area neo-fokies Vetiver, whose new covers album, Thing of the Past, is rather lovely.

Vetiver

Hot Snakes

Also tonight (12/17), is that double-shot of ex-Hot Snakes/Drive Like Jehu/Pitchfork bands at Santos Party House: Obits, that's fronted by Rick Froberg; and headliners The Night Marchers, which features John Reis and two other members of Hot Snakes. I have to admit Obits is more of a draw for me, as the band also features Sohrab Habibion who used to front Edsel, one of my favorite bands from the '90s DC scene. Obits just released their debut 7", "One Cross Apiece," which I like a lot. Will there be a mini Hot Snakes reunion tonight? Probably not, but you can always hope for a Christmas miracle.

Plus Minus

Speaking of '90s indie rock survivors, Thursday (12/18) at Music Hall of Williamsburg is +/-, which is the band/solo project James Baluyut formed when Versus called it quits in the early part of this decade. Versus are playing shows again - and maybe recording new material (so I hear) - but +/- are still very much their own thing and going strong, having released their fourth album Xs on Your Eyes, back in October. Actually the whole line-up at MHoW that night is pretty great: Philly duo Pattern is Movement (who played a BV CMJ day party this year), Brooklyn indie royalty The Ladybug Transistor, and In Interview who I caught at NYC popfest back in June and who don't play nearly enough.